The Other Was The Investment Of
Kimberley By A Force Which Consisted Principally Of Freestaters
Under The Command Of Wessels And Botha.
The place was defended by
Colonel Kekewich, aided by the advice and help of Mr. Cecil Rhodes,
who had gallantly thrown himself into the town by one of the last
trains which reached it.
As the founder and director of the great
De Beers diamond mines he desired to be with his people in the hour
of their need, and it was through his initiative that the town had
been provided with the rifles and cannon with which to sustain the
siege.
The troops which Colonel Kekewich had at his disposal consisted of
four companies of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (his own
regiment), with some Royal Engineers, a mountain battery, and two
machine guns. In addition there were the extremely spirited and
capable local forces, a hundred and twenty men of the Cape Police,
two thousand Volunteers, a body of Kimberley Light Horse, and a
battery of light seven-pounder guns. There were also eight Maxims
which were mounted upon the huge mounds of debris which surrounded
the mines and formed most efficient fortresses.
A small reinforcement of police had, under tragic circumstances,
reached the town. Vryburg, the capital of British Bechuanaland,
lies 145 miles to the north of Kimberley. The town has strong Dutch
sympathies, and on the news of the approach of a Boer force with
artillery it was evident that it could not be held. Scott, the
commandant of police, made some attempt to organise a defence, but
having no artillery and finding little sympathy, he was compelled
to abandon his charge to the invaders. The gallant Scott rode south
with his troopers, and in his humiliation and grief at his
inability to preserve his post he blew out his brains upon the
journey. Vryburg was immediately occupied by the Boers, and British
Bechuanaland was formally annexed to the South African Republic.
This policy of the instant annexation of all territories invaded
was habitually carried out by the enemy, with the idea that British
subjects who joined them would in this way be shielded from the
consequences of treason. Meanwhile several thousand Freestaters and
Transvaalers with artillery had assembled round Kimberley, and all
news of the town was cut off. Its relief was one of the first tasks
which presented itself to the inpouring army corps. The obvious
base of such a movement must be Orange River, and there and at De
Aar the stores for the advance began to be accumulated. At the
latter place especially, which is the chief railway junction in the
north of the colony, enormous masses of provisions, ammunition, and
fodder were collected, with thousands of mules which the long arm
of the British Government had rounded up from many parts of the
world. The guard over these costly and essential supplies seems to
have been a dangerously weak one. Between Orange River and De Aar,
which are sixty miles apart, there were the 9th Lancers, the Royal
Munsters, the 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and the 1st
Northumberland Fusiliers, under three thousand men in all, with two
million pounds' worth of stores and the Free State frontier within
a ride of them.
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